our difficult ones and identical to what was raised -- >> i >> the issues were different than the ones we have in front of us. if you give aid to an organization on the primary basis -- even if it is humanitarian, you take away -- you provide them with the ability to conduct various activities. that is not really at issue here, is it? >> it would be because as i recall, i think this court also -- you give them legitimacy. >> if they independently advocate and that are upstanding

citizens and they spend 10 hours explaining why he is being badly treated, that gives them legitimacy. it is perfectly permissible. just the fact of giving legitimacy cannot by itself eliminate their first amendment rights, can it? >> no, it doesn't. the government has said, if you are speaking independently, even if that might in some way assist, we have made loud and clear that is not covered by the statue. that still does not mean that if instead, you are acting under the direction and control of the entity, and you are providing them with ways to give them legitimacy, we are saying that is covered by the statute. >> i believe asked you a humanitarian law project, if there is material support in

your view? >> as i recall, i answered that brilliantly, and i fall back on that. >> he said it could. >> obviously they are acting independently. i think what i responded at the time, if instead he contacted picasso and said we would like you to do brief for us, under our direction and control, and then you file a brief under our direction and control, that would be different. that was the key thing versus independence -- independence vs. non independence. >> if time has expired but i want to make sure all members of the panel have asked all the questions they want to ask. >> mail address a couple of

other points? i will keep it as brief as possible. >> i am sure professor cole appreciates that as well. mr. cole says there is classified information in the record. as we have pointed out, this has been upheld by the d.c. circuit, by the second circuit. there is a balancing that must take place here, and the circuits have all rejected the very argument that prof. cole is making. prof. cole mentioned the recent supreme court decision on the structural error point. that decision does not support mr. kohl at all. the supreme court does not use the term structural error. the supreme court felt there was a violation of due process

because this was a situation where the judge was an elected judge and had received donations from one of the parties in the case. the supreme court held that this was a due process violation that infected the whole legal proceeding. it is not an example of a structural error. the supreme court does not even use that term. we are still with the situation where as this court has noted, the structural error analysis has never been used in the civil case. the types of situations where this court and the supreme court have said there is not a structural error goes way beyond this case. this is all discussed in our brief. i think i have covered everything. thank you very much, your honor. >> would you put five minutes,

o'clock? >> responding briefly to the first amendment contingence first, the supreme court did not hold that it was improperly applied challenge. it was not that you cannot bring the challenge, it was you can bring the challenge, but you lose because legitimacy frees up assets of a foreign organization that you are supporting, we cannot control its assets. as i suggested before, that is simply not the case with the domestic entity that has no connection to any existing foreign entity. >> what is your response to counsel's argument that in fact there is a global al haramain set of entities that are a coordinated blob, and how you can use part of that, if that

were supported in the record read with that not bring it within the supreme court's holding more directly? >> i don't think so. it would be entirely speculative that holding a coordinated press conference would somehow free up resources. >> that is the resources question. there are two things you said were different. one is the domestic entity. second, there are no resources to be freed up. you are answering my first? going to the second point. -- your sd it -- you are answering my first question by going to the second point. if the entity is not truly a domestic entity and the only distinction is whether any resources can be freed up, is that still a sufficient distinction?

>> i think that if the entity is a domestic entity and its assets are frozen, what we are talking about is the core political speech of protesting the government's action against its , it simply could not satisfied -- [unintelligible] >> i think he is making a slightly different argument here. if you provide a service, that is enough. i don't think he is relying in this case on the idea of freeing up assets. as i understand the distinction, independent advocacy is fine, but if you make a telephone call and chat with al haramain -- >> that is right. it sounded like he said here coordinating would be ok.

that is not the line that the drew.nment throug you can look at the supreme court ruling force where it specifically says independent advocacy is protected, but advocacy under the direction and control or coordinated with. having the press conference that your honor hypothesized would suggest multiple association and criminal penalties, without question. they define services to include public relations services, to or for the benefit of a designated entity. this is a designated entity. that is what we want to do, and the government could have long ago said they are free to do that. they have never challenge are standing. what they've said is they have the right to make it a crime for

us to make that phone call and say it would it help you for us to hold a press conference? would it help you for us to hold a demonstration or file a brief? i don't think under the first amendment that can be permissible. the communist party of the united states was found by congress to be part of an international communist conspiracy to overthrow the united states by force and violence, and yet the supreme court strongly upheld the rights of individuals in the united states to work with the communist party usa, to speak with that, to associate with the, to support it, notwithstanding the argument that it might somehow support this international conspiracy. i think it is quite distinct. i think it is critically important here and not only that we are not providing notice of what the charges were, but also that the government critically relied on classified evidence,

and contrary to the assertions, the courts have not upheld in the designation for classified evidence was critical to the agency's determination. would it said in the most recent case is we have only upheld reliance on in camera classified evidence where the government had not relied on a classified material and the unclassified material is sufficient to justify the designation. that is not the case here. if you look at the letter that was submitted to us in 2008, they reject our arguments with respect to judgements based on the classified evidence. if you look at their we designation memo, two-thirds of it is redacted.

the critically relied and classified evidence. this court has a committee that relies on classified evidence to deprive an illegal alien of a benefit. it is presumptively unconstitutional. moreover, hear the government has taken steps that would increase notice without undermining its concerns about confidentiality. for example, it has not provided an unclassified summer which might tell us what we have to respond to. they have not done that. they have done that and other cases. they made no effort to do it. the have not accede to our request to give us security clearances so that we can review the information, something that they do quite commonly in criminal cases. they are doing it in all of the guantanamo cases. why? because it increases average

share it -- subject to a process that does not undermine the government's efforts. with the risk of error be reduced if we were provided more notice of what is actually at issue? absolutely. >> what is the difference between criminal and civil proceedings? >> the guantanamo cases or civil proceedings regarding enemy aliens and nunnelee -- nonetheless it is critical that lawyers have access to the secret evidence so that they can in closed session respond to it. they are not allowed to share that information with their clients, of course.

they will not give it to us. it is not because we are not eligible for security clearances. the assembly said we are not required to do it. it increases fairness and reduces the risk of error and imposes no word on government in terms of its interesting company nick --, n.j. of the, it has to be unconstitutional pri >> how would you assess whether the critical reliance on classified evidence in this case, was a harmless error? how can we tend to show you what we would have said in response to what we don't know and have not seen? it seems to me that is a problem the district court got wrong.

mr. edwards is wrong in saying other courts have upheld it and this is a case in which was critically relied on. >> you are well over your time, so please summarize. >> the last two. , in response to your first question was whether you can designate for support of non designated group. i think if you look at the two cases, the holy land foundation and iara, you can look at the genesis and history of past support, pre designation support, at least where there is no evidence of severing ties and there is evidence of continuing support after the group has been designated. so it was hamas in the case of polio and foundation and islamic

african relief foundation. in both cases, the entities were designated and the debt -- domestic entities -- the d.c. circuit said where have you shown that there is continuous support? if you can look at prior support as evidence of that. hear what we have is no designation at the time that we were designated. not in 2004, not in 2008. the final point is with respect to the burdens of notice. i think it is critical to note that over 10,000 individuals and organizations on the treasury department's list, the vast majority have no ties to the united states, no connection to the united states. therefore under supreme court precedents, they have no due process rights. that would not be entitled to the notice. the only people in title to the

notice are those protected by u.s. law and the u.s. constitution, namely domestic entities. u.s. persons, there have been one or two u.s. persons, and organizations that have a physical presence or assets here, which is probably a handful. the vast majority of these groups have no presence, no property, no rights, and therefore ruling in this case that we are due process applies , one must provide notice. it would not burden the gut -- the government and would provide for fair process. >> the case will be submitted for decision. thank you both for your excellent presentation. i realize we had to make some changes to the schedule for logistical reasons and i appreciate your accommodation of that, too. we will take a 10 minute recess and then return.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> now, microsoft chairman bill gates talks about his philanthropic organization called the bill and melinda gates foundation. his career at microsoft, as well as education and global healthcare. this took place at the economic club of washington d.c. it is about an hour. >> we are very pleased and honored tonight to have bill gates as our special guest. as i said at the outset, this is in the 25 years of the club, the biggest turnout we have ever had. i don't think it is because the interviewer skills were so great. i think it's because everybody wanted to hear bill gates. i think the reason is because of his extraordinary

accomplishments over so many years. i don't think he needs an electorate introduction, but i would like to make a couple of points. today, bill is essentially the biggest and greatest philanthropists in the world. he has given $30 billion of his own money to his foundation, and that foundation has to date given away about $24 billion to causes we will talk about, including k-12 education in the united states and health care in the developing world. he has become not only a big donor to these causes, but someone actually committed and knowledgeable about the causes and brought to with the intelligence and dedication and focus he brought to his business career earlier. his business career is also legendary. he left harvard in the 1970's and started a company later named microsoft. he built it into the largest

technology company in the world. at one. it had the highest market valerie of any company in the world's history. he revolutionized the computer system that we have in our country and revolutionized software, and everybody here, i dare say, has used the products of his company, microsoft. he served as the ceo from 1975 to the year 2000 when he stepped down as ceo. he managed to become in addition to a very successful entrepreneur and businessman and ceo, the wealthiest man in the world, and today he is one of the wealthiest men in the world. force today said -- force today said he is only the third wealthiest man in the world with the modest income of $49 billion.

it would be $88 billion if it were not for his philanthropic work. it is one thing to make a lot of money and another thing to give it away. bill gates has managed to keep his feet on the ground, his ego in check, and he has made himself a very humane and personable person and made himself a accessible to people. what people admire about him is not only his extraordinary accomplishments in philanthropy and business, but also the person he has become and the person he has let so many people know. what i would like to do tonight is not only talk about the foundation and its philanthropic work but also some of the things that make him so human and so interesting to talk to. let me start by saying thank you very much for coming, bill. i wonder if you ever thought what you could have made of yourself had you finished

college? [laughter] is very legendary they dropped out of harvard. but seriously, every parent wants to know if you would recommend your own children to drop out of college. was the dropping out of college two years early that made a difference? >> paul allen, who is my co- founder, and i saw the very first kid computer on the cover of a magazine. we had been talking about the miracle of the chip for three years by then. we were saying this is going to happen without us. we have to get involved, this is so important. when that product was announced , we felt like we had to go do it right away. school did not stand in the way of that.

i am actually on leave from harvard right now. >> what did your parents say? you had gotten into harvard, you were a brilliant student. what did they say when you said you were dropping out? >> my parents were used to strangeness. i had been breaking them then, slowly but surely. my senior year of high school, i skipped because there was a job that i was being offered, which was an amazing job, to work on a very complicated computer project. i got to work with some really brilliant people, so i got to learn a lot more. the people i worked with said i should skip college and go and get a ph.d. i went to my parents and said i think i am going to skip college. they said actually, you should go to college. that was good advice, because in

terms of social development, i never finished my social development, but it helped. [laughter] >> i am tollner when you are in high school you prepared a program that enables you to get in classes with mostly girls. is that true? >> they were nearby, and they tended to be the better looking girls, for some reason. i decided when the classes would meet, who was in the classes. it was a semi complicated software problem, and they were super nice to let me do it. soy gave me money to do it, that was a great position. >> a couple of years ago, you were given an honorary degree at harvard, and you said that you always told her parents she would go back and get the

degree. in your speech, he said that you were assigned to live in what is called the yard, and he wanted to live there because there were more girls in that part carper, and you thought it would give you a better opportunity, that you would outshine the rest of the geeks, but he said it didn't really work. >> the first year i lived down in the yard, but they had a great 50-50 ratio. that did not do anything for me, but again, at least it was a better background. >> when you started your company, did you ever have an ambition to build such a large company? did you have a business plan that led to something like microsoft becoming what it became? >> the interesting thing is that

we always had a contradiction in our plan. we said there would be a computer on every desk and in every home running microsoft software, which is a plan for a very big company. i would constantly be saying no customer pays me for a year, could i meet the payroll? i always had enough cash on hand. other first 13 customers, eight of them did not pay us in full. radio shack, apple, a few months got on that early list. -- a few good ones got on that early list. when someone said what is your plan, but i would say my plan is to double. clearly we can double. i said that we had 100 people, 500 people, 5000 people. in a way, we were actually being

very realistic about what we needed to do and what the income would be. i remember once when the forbes four hundred list came out. i thought it was interesting, if we double a few more times, we might even be on this list. let's just plan the next doubling. >> did you ever consider starting the company are building anywhere other than your hometown area because it was not been considered a center for this type of activity? >> are very first customer when i dropped out of harvard was in albuquerque, new mexico. i learn how to spell that, and then we were hiring people. it is not the easiest place to hire people.

then that first customer got bought by a california company so we knew we had to move. the choice was to move to silicon valley, and we were worried about the traffic and employee loyalty, or to move to be next to dfw airport, because we are doing so much business in asia, are going back to seattle. everybody in the company wanted to go back to seattle. we eventually decided that would work, we could create a loyal group there. the computer game traditionally was on the east coast, boston was the biggest part of it, and the new game was almost entirely in silicon valley. >> you mentioned forbes. when you went public in 1986, he became the youngest self-made

billionaire in the united states at the age of 32. >> when we went public, within a few years the value kept going up. >> when he became a billionaire at a relatively young age, how did it change your life, and did you find people treating much differently? did your parents treat you differently? [laughter] >> no, i would order cheese on my cheeseburger. i was talking to my dad once, and he was saying it must be tough for paul allen's dad, his son makes more money than he does. i did not answer him, and he said ok, you make more than i may. i was the best customers in his law firm at the time. i have done very well for the

legal profession. i was fanatical. between ages 18 and at least 30, i was just totally focused on microsoft. i did not believe in vacations. i let other people take them along a bit. and you everybody's license plate. i knew when they came in in the morning and when they left that night. i was so excited and so thrilled by the work we were doing, i wanted them to stay in front of it. the full of notion of what the company or the stock was worth was not that interesting. sometimes there was an article about giving it away, and i remember reading it and thinking it was something out have to think about someday. i was 38 when i got married, and then i did have to think about

it. >> you marry someone who not only had two college degrees, she had the advantage of having them from duke. now as everybody knows she is your partner in the bill and melinda gates foundation. how does that work in the foundation? do you both have to agree on every gift? had you sort through the gifts and decide what your areas of focus are in the foundation? >> she is an equal partner in this whole thing, which is a lot of fun to have a project that is deep and complicated. she knows when i get over excited about something. maybe i have gone so 4 -- 24. she thinks about the people. how -- maybe i have gone too far. we do a couple of trips a year where we go together. we will go off to india for a week together, and then we do three or four trips where each of us will go somewhere and then we get back together and explain

what we saw there. it has worked very, very well. she knows some of my weaknesses and is very helpful with those things. she got to ride on air force one before i did. >> when you got your foundation off the ground in a significant way, it contributed $20 billion at the outset. what was it like to write a check for $20 billion? >> the year 2000, microsoft was valued at over $500 billion, which was a kind of unusual number. i thought, this is a good time to give some stock away. stock certificates within to the foundation, and over time those were actually sold.

what happened was, my dad was retired from his legal career and a microsoft executive also retired, and they were talking about working together. i thought ok, given that i am still so focused on microsoft and i don't have that much airtime between microsoft and family stuff, these two will do a pretty good job. i started learning about vaccines and help underfunded they were and what a miracle they were and learn about reproductive health. when you create a foundation, in the year 2000 we had to ramp up pretty quickly to spend that 5%. >> so now he retired from microsoft essentially in 2008, i

guess, and you are still the non-executive chairman, but 100% of your time is in philanthropy now. how did you decide that the two areas you want to focus on networking k-12 education in the united states and worldwide health care? >> we decided that our main focus would be something that affects life in a very big way. that is why we picked global help. we saw that because the poorest people don't create a market, there is not much research. if you get those vaccines, they can be delivered anywhere and they are delivered on every place on the earth. they have an enduring effect, not only on reducing death, which is worth a lot, but also

reducing sickness. the majority of kids in africa never develop above the 90 iq because they have had infectious disease that means their brain does not fully develop. that holds those countries back in a huge way. and then parents to have healthy children, the master switch of all problems is if you have too many people, everything that counts is impossible. that is what global help kmart number one priority. then we said we should pick a problem in the united states because it really has an incredible education system and it really is the american system that allowed linda and i to learn. we give a little over a quarter to u.s. education just because

we wanted to have a global cause and a domestic cause. we have added things that help poor people in agriculture and sanitation. >> everybody you see must be asking you at this point in your life for money in some clever or so away. you must have gotten used to that, and how you respond to so many people? >> there is a lot of interest in raising money. if you really tell people what your focus is, if it is about global health and poor children, saving their lives, we are very interested. it is about improving the u.s. educational system. it is out of those areas, it is very likely that somebody else should go do that. even a foundation our size has

to have some degree of focus to build up expertise and see where we are going wrong becaus. you can do them with more of measurement or more of a learning clarkerf. it works out ok. i can say no. warren buffett taught me how. >> you mentioned warren buffett and berkshire. let me get to that. you had a relationship with warren buffett for a number of years, and one day he called you up and said i want to contribute to your foundation. how did that come about? >> a very unusual set of circumstances. i met warren in 1991. a mother said she had warren buffett coming over and i should come meet him. i said i am busy, mom. i said that you are a lot about a lot of things.

i was still in my fanatical stage at that point. she said no, you have to come by. i said mom, he buys and sells stocks. that is not really add to human welfare. but she said i should come. so i went and met warren, and he started asking me questions about why it didn't ibm do what i did, and how would affect different things. these are questions i had always wanted somebody to ask me. then i talked to him about things about the businesses he knew. so we became pretty good friends. then tragically, his wife died

in 2004, and his plan was that he would make the money and she would run the foundation, and that she would outlive him and have lots of time to do it. when that was not going to be the case, weren't completely to our surprise decided to form a five foundations. it was fantastic but completely unexpected. >> when he called you that day and said i am going to give you $30 billion, what was your reaction? >> it was, wow, he is really serious about this. [laughter] about a year after his wife died, he said the logical thing to do would be to give this money to your foundation.

but he was not suggesting it would happen. he was suggesting it would not happen, but he was just brainstorming. then three months later he called and said i am actually doing that. i said you are doing what? he said i want to give a large part to your foundation because i like to delegate things. [laughter] seriously, warren had very clear principles. in terms of giving money away, he picked various foundations. >> did he say i would like to have my name on your foundation? >> first usa needed not even want to be a trusty -- first he was saying he did not even want to be a trustee.

then he said the kind of would like to be a trustee. he has been just totally supportive, gives advice and helps us think about some of the tough issues we face. it is a lot like the trees the managers in his business. he knows they are going to do their best. because they admire him so much, they want to do good work for him, and they know he is available to provide guidance. >> you have obviously had a great career in business and out in philanthropy. how you compare the level of excitement you get out of the two different types of endeavors? >> there was the microsoft phase, the first 10 years, where i got to ride a lot of code.

nobody wrote a line of code without me looking at it, no one hired an engineer without me. that had a certain perfection to it, that everything had to be in the right place. that was very cool. but then i could not keep that up if i wanted to do a lot of products. i had to step back and not write code and manage and take strategies. i had to kind of a just to zero lesser way of contributing, and there are a lot of mistakes you can make when you start doing that. the foundation is very similar. there are scientists working on a malaria vaccine. it can take a decade to know if they are going down a dead-end or not. there are issues with education that finally will be decided politically.

some things are more of an engineering type thing and the market will tell you if you get it right or wrong. on some of our science stuff at the foundation, is more like that, where the and you either have it or you don't. if you invent a way that teachers should be, some big compensated -- if you invent a way that teachers should be compensated. >> you wrote code for a long time and you are obviously a software expert. i always wondered about two questions. why is it when i turn on my

microsoft software, to turn it on i have to have three fingers, alternate, control, and deadly. what was the theory behind having three different buttons you had to push? i never could figure it out. [applause] >> when you want to start of the computer, you want to know there is not some funny piece of software in their that is looking at everything you are doing and just pretended is real software. the actual process is in the keyboard, that when it gets that sequence, it does a hard reset on a computer, so you know that is the boot software. we could have picked a less obscure in sequence, but we don't want it to be confused with normal keystrokes. we came up with that. maybe we could have done it

better. [laughter] >> why cannot have software where if i send an e-mail to you but i don't want you to send it to somebody else, you cannot forward it? right now if i send an e-mail to you, it can go all over the world. can you prevent that? >> if you configure microsoft exchange the right way, you can have two things. you can have the mail that cannot be forwarded. you can have email that can be afforded, but the originator sees the trace of every forward and every fourth of every forward. the originator can see exactly what is going on. you have to notify people that it is a traced email. to some degree, as soon as you send somebody an e-mail, in an extreme case, they can take a full grasp of their screen and put that in a scanner and e-mail

that photograph. once it is in their brain, you cannot guarantee information does not leak out. so there is never a perfect system, but there are systems that make a lot easier to stop people from forwarding things. >> when ibm was looking to have somebody provide software, i think you were selected. what was it like to get ibm to select you? were you competing with a lot of other people, and why did they not say they want to own the software that you produce for us? why do you think they did not want to own that software? >> they were not curious about personal computing. ibm became a company with many engineering locations and laboratories. one of those laboratories was raton.hanboca

some genius up at headquarters decided, we take four years from when we conceive of a probleprot and when we get it done. we should get that down to a shorter time period. let's see if we can get it done quickly. they took bids for new methodology. boca get a bid where they said they would use outside vendors and get a product done in two years. the forecast was to sell 200,000 of them. their bid was accepted. it was not a major project, it was just a thing never doing. -- it was just a think they were

doing. the group at boca raton was a fantastic group. what happened is, this was in november 1981, and it sold like mad. he quickly sold over 1 million machines. there was a group that did low in business computers and a group that did work processing. they said they are selling the machine cheaper than ours and messing up our market. so they both bid to take over the personal computer division. they said remember, these guys are morons. they actually took the guy who ran the pc division and put him

in charge of the other two divisions. in some ways, like many companies, ibm was fairly enlightened about a lot of keep stuff and a lot of other stuff they were not. we were very explicit that if anybody else does computers, we need to make more money than we were making. we have to be able to sell it to other people. they understood that we had kept that up side. there was one guy at ibm who objected to their concept. he was overridden.

>> had he not been overwritten, that was the most expensive decision ibm ever made. >> the ibm pc was not guaranteed to be successful. there were lots of personal computers, commodore, apple, radio shack. need thatgenerational the group decided to move up to a slightly more powerful machine. it became a template. it is hard to go back and .onsider those other software's ibm made a lot of money on personal computers and did very well. eventually they sold off that division. >> had apple licensed its software to people in those days

that did not have open software -- open systems, open architecture, do you think that would have made a difference in your company? >> we actually told apple -- we had applications that ran on the macintosh. strangely, we made more money and mcintosh was sold and when an ibm pc was sold. the dominant work processor and spreadsheet on the macintosh -- we kept telling them, please licensure software. the irony is that they fired their ceo, they brought steeg back, they kept building on their software. you can do it on your own, but it is just a different model. the microsoft model is for all

the hardware companies. >> when you wrote your first book about your company and your life, i don't think you mentioned very much the internet in that book. maybe i am wrong. did you foresee the internet coming along, or did it surprise you, and how important it became as part of the whole computer generation? >> yes and no. it is easy to sound not humble. the book talks all about the information superhighway, which sounds stupid now. the internet is a mind blowing think that has completely changed the world forever. there are some elements levitt -- elements of its, while all sorts of people in the industry talking about it for a long time.

we kept expecting it to happen, and it never happened. then all of a sudden it took off. i don't think any of us sort of realize why it did not happen for the five years before it did. then once it did happen, it is one of those unbelievable phenomenon. the more people that wanted to be connected got connected, and the stuff kids cheaper. the investors completely over invested in these internet companies. a few of them actually survived, but the net return on the money between 1996 and 2001, building infrastructure and website, 90% of them were laughable. it is like a sock puppet type thing that people invested hundreds of millions of dollars in. that phenomenon was mind blowing, because it had such a

powerful dynamic. some of these applications were what we were doing the personal computer in the first place. >> in your current position, you can see almost anybody in the world. i assume you are not turned down for a lot of meetings. who would you say are among the most impressive government or business leaders you have met over the years, or the people that stand out as being so talented or farsighted that you can remember what they said you are you were very impressed with them? >> i think warren buffett probably gives me the best advice about the world of business and how things are going. i am constantly learning from war and because he is just amazing, and he puts things in a simple to understand that fashion -- i am constantly rren.ing from wa and

i think this is unbelievable in sight and personality, and that applies to lots of things. i still have a soft spot for scientists, people who spend their time teaching a problem like designing a new toilet. you can have a huge impact on humanity, designing a better wheat seed, designing a plan that makes its own fertilizer. in some areas people will toil their whole life and some work out and some do not work out. i love finding someone like that who is doing great work.

>> you have met a lot of political figures. has it ever occur to you that you could do their job better than them, and have you ever thought of running for office? >> no, i could not do their job better than them. would draw myit best talent out, it is very important. the country has been very well run. whenever you look at politics, you have to say it has always worked out before. doesn't this just happened to be the time it looks like it is not going to work out? toyou probably wouldn't have spend all that time raising money if you got into politics. you are 55 years old. that is relatively young for somebody to have the worldwide stature that you have.

you are one of the most respected men in the world, one of the most influential in the world at 55 years old. what would you like to see as your legacy, and what would you like to do for the next 25 years of your active life? what would you like ultimately your legacy are legacies to be? >> the global health area i love, because it is so concrete .nd so impact wilful last year, all little under 9 million children die before the age of five. in the next 25 years we should be able to cut that down to about 2 million. that has a huge effect in terms of reducing sickness and

reducing population growth. all it takes is about 10 new vaccines getting developed industry rooted out to a lot of people. that will be most of the rest of my life i will be working on that global help condition. there are some wonderful milestones along the way. in the next three or four years we think we can achieve polio eradication. that is the thing i am spending the most time on today. it means taking sure that even in tough times, the money gets raised. there is still little bit of scientific work that needs to be done. there will be very neat things along the way that will happen. in education, education today is not much different than it was 50 or 60 years ago. if you take almost any endeavor, engineering or medical

understanding, whatever you want to take, the last years have been incredible. in education, that is not the case. if he said the best teacher was from 1960, nobody could prove you wrong. if you actually analyzed why an amazing teacher is so good, it could be a lot more like them. having an evaluation system and having technology come in so that a student can have the world's best collector -- best lecture. i would love to see big success in helping the world's poor. i would like to see big success and education. outside of my family life, if

those things can be achieved, that would be worth the next 50 years. >> you have three children. what would you do if your son or daughter went to college and said i want to drop out and start a company? how would you face that kind of situation? >> i would be able to say no, but i think it is an exceptional situation when it is logical to not complete your education. i would probably resist as much as my dad did, and hopefully the kid has a passion. if your parents objection makes you say ok, i will go back to school, then you probably were not meant to start a company. >> how do you keep your family live relatively normal? when you are driving down the

streets of seattle, do people stare at you when they see it in a car driving? >> no. everybody is just focused on their kids when i get to school. meat and lots of families. -- me and lots of families. learning things with them, that's lots of fun. i am envious. if they are curious about something, you can find out about it. you can go watch a youtube video. when i was young -- they said, hey, we do not have an answer. >> do you limit the amount of time that your kids spend on the

computer? >> i would if they showed signs of extreme behavior like i did. [laughter] you want them to do sports. you want them to do things with friends. achieving that balance is a hard. that is why that tiger mother thing is an interesting thing to have round. what is too much? what balance should a kid have? so far, none of my kids have shown that such tendencies. >> warren buffet famously said he was not going to give his children any money. he was going to give them the foundation to monitor and minister. do you up plans for how much you are going to leave your children? what are you going to do? >> again, my wife and i will end up giving them a very, very slim percentage.

[laughter] >> a small percentage is still probably a lot. [laughter] >> you want to give them enough so they can do anything, but they cannot do nothing. i am sure we will think about it. it is a tricky problem. every kid, their friends and associates should think of them -- but then again, they do get a great education. and they are getting one of the best deals in live. and then time for from time, they will say, "reminded me why you are not giving me any money ?" [laughter] we have got the bidding really a low here. [laughter] >> are you ever short of cash?

do you need credit cards? when you show a credit card, do people say "oh, sure, that is really do." >> my name is william h. gates iii. when i was young that, my card would say "jr." and i would show with and they would say i was too young. and i would say, no. it says "jr.." i do not have a problem. [laughter] >> all right. we have some time. one last question. you said your foundation would probably not stay around too many years after your wife and you leave the earth. is there a reason? what is your thinking? >> carnegie and some other

foundations -- the rockefeller foundation has many times picked people out of the mainstream, a medical research, they just did it incredible work. i aspire to that level. i do not think though -- of perpetual foundation makes sense. there are serious problems today -- education, and people who are rich today and have energy and can focus their resources and should focus on those problems. there will be rich people in the future. and they will know what those problems are. and so the foundation has to

give most of its money to one county. it is very hard to predict consistently what will happen in any future. i think the foundation will last 20 years after the last of us will go because some of the things we're involved in -- we built a team and we want to have continuity. but when you think of a timeframe when a particular mission will end, then that mission should be for someone else. they can form a new foundation. >> ok. any questions? anybody curious to ask a question? all right. we have one back there. some get a microphone. you stay out of politics and now. you do not endorse politics? >> i tried. >> [unintelligible]

you retired at an early age -- [unintelligible] >> well, the antitrust experience, i do not recommend it. [laughter] all the other governments in the world say, oh, great, now we can really go after them, too. you are just lying in a field, bleeding with every vulture coming to get you. no, i would not say it necessarily affected my timing. i always knew that microsoft was a company -- whether it was leading in technology strategy -- should be 50 or over. so i decided to retire earlier

in my 50's. i was in that range. i felt like both my impacts and my ability to learn a lot was higher at the foundation then at microsoft. we had a great team at microsoft. i made the change. >> other questions? here? go ahead. >> can you please talk about the relationship between agriculture and the extent to the new leadership in congress who want to the fund global agricultural development? -- defund global agricultural development? >> we did not talk much about the agricultural things we do for the poorest, but none of the big things we do is to make sure farmers have access to

seeds, fertilizer. over 70% of the poor people in the world, farmers with a very small plots of land who have a hard time beating their families. -- feeding their families. there is this potential to give them better tools. particularly seeds that will help them deal with that soil of variability. it is great. the government spent a lot on andculture in the 1970's 1980's, the so-called green revolution. it was a miracle. we more than doubled the output, and in many cases tripled the output, of farmers. now we need to do that again. even in asia, we need to get

yields up. and the u.s. government has funded some of this and was definitely talking about increases, made a few increases. now there are things that are kind of up in the year in terms of the overall budget picture. is that something that will be maintained or will it be cut? there is a proposal that it may get maintained. we will see. >> ok. question? right here. question? >> what is your golf handicap? [laughter] >> i was with some friends at a dustup last week. i go once a year -- i was with some friends at augusta last week. i go once a year. 24 handicapy have a

when it is all said and done. >> but they just give you the putt at the end? [laughter] >> we only have a $1 bet. >> right here? >> and wonder if you could comment on the recent election year as a resident of the district of columbia. the outcome was very disappointing with regards to the education. i would like to hear your 2 cents on that. >> washington, d.c. is a system of contrasts. in many ways, it is one of the worst school districts in the country. it is also an area with a lot of charter schools, and a lot of this charter schools are quite amazing. and the charter schools are not only offering a great education.

they have been laboratory to learn about if you have kids from the inner city, if you have a very tough background, can you do well with them? and when kids achieve 90% of their kids going to four-year colleges, spending about the same rate as other public schools, that is phenomenal. kidsre really getting the involved in strong relationships. those are key things that had been difficult in the normal public school system. i think it is a huge contribution. we put in a teacher evaluation system. we were supportive of that. we believe over time, they can use cameras in the classroom, data, a student interviews, ways to create a system that is fair

and create improvement and increase the compensation, somewhat on a seniority basis. it turns out what is going to happen is they will continue to drive forward in terms of evaluations, really running the system on about half of the kids. it will be interesting to see. around the country, there are a lot of school districts trying not teacher evaluations. in colorado. the simon partnership with unions. they've been a good partner in places. i think we will get greater evaluations. i think the d.c. experience will contribute to that. >> i have one more question. be a time for one more. right here if someone can bring a microphone.

sorry. >> you talked about having great concrete goals to focus on, in recognizing k-12, higher education, and that is a little more political or more challenging. with 25% or so of foundation resources focused in that area, and interested to hear more about what are the concrete goals that you use to define success in that arena for the foundation? >> some of the goals -- that is, how much do we understand rate should -- great teachers? how did they help the kid who is behind? how did they engage the kid in the back? there are all these great things these people do come up and you

should be able to submit your video to a website and have someone critique. point out how those things are done well. teacher retention -- it is amazing how little has been done on that. over the next two years, that will get done. people can take advantage of it or not, but that is a key goal. the key to being in the classroom and helping kids know where they are, there is a huge opportunity there. that is something we can make sure happens. there is a web site called k hnacademy.org, where if you want to see the progress -- it is a great website. it is an amazing thing. if you want to be reminded of anything about math or science,

if you want your kids involved, i highly recommend it. and the idea of what a personal system as. that can be designed. two questions are very diagnostic as to how good the teacher is. ask the kids, does the teacher used the time in the classroom well? and when you are confused, does the teacher held straight up? -- does the teacher help st. new -- straighten you out? then we have goals like reducing the dropout rate, making sure more kids and united states get some kind of post secondary accreditation for a field they want to go into. we have very ambitious goals there. if you ignore the technology,

those trend lines are all in iran direction. as budgets soar, the funding for higher education and k-12 are where that comes out to. pennsylvania today as just an example. they cut their higher education funding by 50%. we really need magic to achieve those goals. we need technology. we need to make sure -- whether it is by increasing revenue or being smart about health care -- that we do increase funds in our investment in education. it is tough. we feel very directly responsible. >> thank you. i want to thank bill very much for giving him -- for giving us

an hour of his time this evening. i want to thank you for everything you're doing for our country and citizens around the world. thank you. but me get them now. -- let me get them now. a small token of our appreciation. this is a reproduction of the map of the district of columbia in 1791. [laughter] and this is a flag that flew on the capitol today, and banks from congressman dingle and debbie dingle. [applause] thank you up for that. i appreciate everything you have done it this evening and everything else you were doing for our country. thank you very much. [applause] thank you, all.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> tonight, first lady michelle obama and secretary of state hillary clinton has the international woman of courage awards ceremony. then australian prime minister julia gillard addresses a joint meeting of congress. also, rhode island gov. lincoln chafee gives his state of the state address. and later, microsoft chairman bill gates talks about his foundation in his career. tomorrow, house homeland hearing chairman's examination -- examining radical islam in america with testimony on both sides of the issue. this is followed by the two men who related their personal accounts of family members involved with islamic radicals. >> potential republican

presidential contenders have been making stops in key primary states. this weekend, on the road to the white house, michelle bachman in new hampshire at a fund-raiser. sunday at 6:00 27:30 p.m. >> first lady michelle obama and secretary of state hillary clinton hosted the international women of courage award ceremony at the state department. afterwards, at two award winners spoke to reporters. this is about 30 minutes. > >> good afternoon, and welcome. i am pleased to welcome you on the 100th anniversary of international women's day.

secretary of state clinton has hosted the international woman of courage awards here at the department with the first lady michelle obama. this is a prestigious award. to tell you a little bit more about the event today, the award, and about their own personal stories, we have today a special press briefing with the ambassador for large -- the ambassador at large for women's issues and we have henriette ekwe ebongo, journalist and publisher of bebela from cameroon, and maria bashir, a prosecutor general from

afghanistan. >> boston but very much. good afternoon, everybody. we just came from the ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of international women's day, and also having secretary clinton and the first lady as though the international career towards -- bestow the international courage awards. there were 10 honorees. the law could not come because they were not allowed to leave their countries. of those who were here, there was the president of kurdistan -- kyrgyzstan. i have two additional honoree's with me -- hear from afghanistan, maria bashir. she is a prosecutor general in

herat province. banned from working during the taliban machine, she served her community secretly. this was despite risks of reprisal. she regained her position as investigated for cost -- prosecutor, and was appointed prosecutor general in herat in 2007, the only women to hold -- the only woman to hold this position. her house was set on fire. a bomb exploded in her front yard. and her own life and her children have been threatened by in los taliban letters. but she has waged a determined campaign against crime and corruption, and she stands out as a champion of transparency

and women's rights. also here, we have a fellow journalist for all of you, political activist from cameroon. she is one of the most experienced and influential female journalist in her country. henriette ekwe ebongo has spent a lifetime advancing press freedom, freedom of expression, and gender equality. from a struggle against the dictatorship of 1980, up the struggle against corruption and injustice in recent years, she has refused to be silent and has stood up for justice and the rule of law. she has been imprisoned. she has been threatened. but she goes on in her commitment to the great democratic two years -- values. i just want to say this morning in addition to the first lady

during the secretary, we also have the prime minister of australia. she was the first female prime minister in australia. she made an announcement and talked about the value of education. her announcement had to do with the commitment of additional resources to educate girls in afghanistan. in addition to that, there was an announcement from the goldman sachs foundation. they have a program to help educate women entrepreneurs with business and management training, and the announced the first of this scholarship will be deployed to help women in indonesia and haiti, to target women for specialized training, given the role that women play in economic growth,

particularly women running medium-sized businesses who often face great barriers, but are critical in driving in gdp in those countries. so, that sums up the event we just participated in. i will ask our two honorees to come up here. each of them may want to say a few words. maria -- then we will open it up to questions. >> ok. thank you. i am from central africa, cameroon, as you heard. we've had many problems in my country of democracy and corruption. there is embezzlement. the american embassy has done a lot.

they were part of the process, and the increased pressures on the government's. so, i have been doing thus, in spite of oppression, torture, and all these things. thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] my name is maria bashir.

as was mentioned, i am from the province of herat. i am a prosecutor. you probably have some information, but i will be happy to entertain questions and share with you about the situation and the plight of the afghan women. >> ok. >> [unintelligible] >> this is for maria bashir. can you give us a sense of the condition of women in afghanistan post-taliban? and what role has the woman been given so far? >> [speaking foreign language] > >> the situation of women in

afghanistan has been improving, and there are a lot of challenges we face. but i can tell you that the large number of women and having access to education, higher education, public education for a lot of girls and women, is influential and optimistic. we are hopeful that the

situation is improving. >> [speaking foreign language] >> the situation remains a little bit vague unclear make comes to the early cancellation, as you mentioned before, about the afghan women. but one thing we shall see in the afghan government is it is also related to the constitution of afghanistan. and so, this of course is the

situation. we are optimistic. at the same time, the challenges remain. >> if i may, i would like to ask the so she can understand and answer to it. [speaking foreign language] >> if you would not mind -- >> -- >> sure. the first question is what are some of the cases you are working on since you are the prosecutor? what are the biggest problems and challenges? at the same time, how are you

feeling? how is your sentimental feelings? >> how is that helping you and working -- >> how is that helping you in working? >> [speaking foreign language] >> of course, being a prosecutor

and a woman is a time and i can. but our office is focusing on corruption and violence against women, at the same time we are trying to reach out to a lot of families and women. as i said, this is challenging, but hopefully we will be trying so hard to be able to accomplish this. and we are optimistic in that regard. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> this award was indeed an inspiration for me. this will be an inspiration for my mother and my daughter. thank you up for providing us this opportunity. it is very important for women of courage to be determined come up for the them to do their work around the world. this is something i will cherish. i have a lot of sentimental and emotional feelings about this. thank you very much. >> [unintelligible] how do you feel the conditions

of the women after the u.s. forces leave next year? do you want them to stay? >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language]

>> answering your first question, the government of afghanistan has been trying to help the plight and the condition of the afghan women, but at the same time, i would like to point out that unfortunately with all the promises we are given, they have not been fulfilled, either by the international community or the afghan government. there is the lack of stability that the current afghan government has experienced. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> answering your second question -- yes, the afghan women do think a lot about this, when the forces withdraw from with -- when the forces withdraw from afghanistan. but we would hope that the constitution be enough, as we strengthen the afghan national army and the rule of law and so many institutions of the government that would of course be important. the afghan women are alarmed when you talk about the withdrawal of forces. >> my question is to the ambassador.

what challenges have you faced? did you have any challenges coming any difficulty from the representative from iran? >> we did not have anyone from iran. there were 10 selected from 90 nominations around the world. obviously, we are deeply concerned about the situation for women in iran, which manifests itself every day, but at this point, we have not been able to have any of those kinds of direct links, except through others working there. >> [unintelligible] >> the attendees were the honorees who were selected. there was not one from every country. the embassy nominated, and we had almost 90 submissions. of those, 10 more selected.

women of remarkable courage. that is not to say there are not women in every country that deserves this award, and certainly in iran, there are many. but we based it on the nominations that we got to our embassy. >> i want to ask a question to the lady from cameroon. >> [unintelligible] >> following the reports following the conclusion of events in kosovo. there are also issues in countries in the north of africa and libya. what is your message to women suffering under these kinds of oppression? how do you feel particularly about what is going on at this moment in those countries? >> everyone in cameroon is interested in what is going on

in egypt. we did this 20 years ago. we have this movement, which lasted six months, and still i think our government -- [unintelligible] the opposition did not succeed. the youth have achieved these kinds of demonstrations. with women, there is a special problem in cameroon, because women were involved at the beginning of the democratic process, but when it comes to elections, men take all the positions to be objective. 22 ave 180 mp's, and only women.

nothing has changed truly in the condition of women. we are creating political parties to create ngo's, because we are encouraged by the world bank. that gender is an important area to develop for help and aid. so, this woman is a respected in the ngo society. there are no matter -- there are no longer outstanding women in political party is -- political parties.

we had many problems being met in political education. they will not come to the tall, you know? -- the talk, you know? they are interested in running their own business, but the rights of women -- they do not give a damn for that. >> any further questions? >> i have two questions. the first one goes to the ambassador. the international women of courage award -- [unintelligible]

what is your message to all those women who are now -- what is the position of the united states for all those people who are continuously exposed to these crimes against women? and a specific question -- i would like her to send a message, but i want you to say that in french. [speaking french] thank you. >> that is indeed a very difficult situation.

we were back there two weeks ago following secretary clinton's trip last june. there has been a considerable effort by the united states government, as well as working in conjunction with multilateral organizations like the u.n. and other countries to address many of the challenges. and there are many. we have been working on a wide range of issues, including the security question, at ensuring soldiers are properly trained, ensuring the united nations that the forces are trained in a way that protects civilians. working to strengthen the ngo's.

there is a deep feeling among the women, and i've spent a long time working at to resources and are filledngo's who with talent. many women who are capable of making a difference, even including those who want to go from exerting their power to really beginning to address their immediate problems. working with them and other ngo's to provide a range of services, but beyond that, to help give them the skills and the empowerment that they need to be able to address some of these issues. we have been doing considerable were with the -- work with the

drc. beyond that, there have been recent positive developments in apprehending some of those involved in the brutality, and some of the top commanders the secretary mentioned when she was in the drc. the regiment in terms of the confit minerals. there is a reaction on every button, if you will, that has to be pushed, most particularly in terms of political discussions around the country and regionally. and of course, there is an election coming up. i think it will be very important to ensure free and fair elections, so they can vote safely, said they are not

intimidated -- so they are not intimidated. so, there are a range of challenges, of which, we are working very hard to address in some way, so we do not have an ongoing situation like you just described. >> thank you. it happens to be there is coordination from ifj and the federation in central africa is needed by the congolese. we have all this information on rapes in the eastern part of

your country. i think what i would say is the women will continue to organize. they should be organizing themselves. there are many, many states and ngo's who are very dynamic. i think they should be helped and supported by the international community. of course, there has not been a big civil war in my country since the years of the liberation, but i know that in drc and other countries, women are the first victims of civil war. [speaking french]

>> thank you. i'd like to think the ambassador and our honorees -- thank you. >> right behind you. >> coming up, australian prime minister julia gillard addresses a joint meeting of congress. then road island gov. lincoln chafee gives his state of the state address. and later, microsoft chairman bill gates talked about his foundation and his career. >> sunday on "washington journal" -- laura meckler and tricia murphy on the latest congressional discussions on funding the government through september.

ian vasquez on the economic downturn. and michael doonan talk about the success of the states' health care program. that is live at sunday -- that is live sunday at 7:00 on c- span. >> this weekend on c-span's road to the white house, minnesota congressman michele bachman at a fund-raiser. >> australian prime minister julia gillard address a joint meeting of congress. she spoke about the australia- united states security treaty, solidifying the alliance between the u.s. and australia. other topics included

afghanistan, the global economy, the g-20, and global trade. this is about 20 minutes. >> mr. speaker, the prime minister of australia. >> mr. speaker, the prime minister of australia.

the speaker: members of congress, i have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the honorable julia gillard, prime minister of australia.

>> thank you very much. mr. speaker, mr. president pro tempore, dwibbed members of the senate and house, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, i'm the fourth australian prime minister to address you. like them, i take your invitation as a great honor. like them, i accepted on behalf of australia. since 1950, australian prime ministers, have come here speaking for all e australian people. through you, to all the people of the united states, they each came with a simple message, a message which has been true in

war and peace, a message which has been true in hardshipnd prosperity. in the cold war and in the new world, a message i repeat to you today. distinguished members of the senate and the house, you have a true friend down under. the defining image of america was the landing at normandy. your boys risking everything to help free theorld. for my own generation, the defining image of america was the landing on the moon. my classmates and i was sent

home from school to watch the great moment on television. i always remember thinking that day, americans can do anything. americans helped free the world of my parent's generation. americans inspired the world of my own youth. i stanhere and i see before me the very same brave and free people. i believe you can do anything still. there is a reason the world always looks to america.

your great dream, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness inspires us all. those of you that have spent time in australia know that we are not given to overstatement. we are iconic speakers and by conviction we r r r r r rquick thinkers. iboth of our countries, real mates talk straight. we mean what we sayso let me say this to you. you have an ally in australia, an ally through war and peace, an ally through hardship and prosperity, an ally for the 60 years' past, an ally for all the years to come.

geography and history alone could never explain the strength of the commitment between us. rather our values are shared and our people are friends. this is the heart of our alliance. this is why in our darkest days we've been glad. glad to see each other's face and hear each other's voice. australia's darkest days in the last century followed the fall of sing apour in -- singapore in 1942 and you were there with us. unde attack in the pacific, we fought together side by side, step by bloody step. and while it was australian soldiers at the bay who gave the allies our fifth victory on land in the pacific war, it was american sailors at the battle of the cold sea who destroyed

the fear of an invasion of australia. distinguished members of the senate and the house, australia does not forget. we will never forget. the ultimate expression of our alliance was not signed until 1951. but it was anticipated a dade earlier. in the judgments, the clear, frank and accurate judgment of an australian prime minister. and in the results. the extraordina resolve of an american president. in the decades since, we'v stuck together in every major conflict. from korea and vietnam to the conflicts in the gulf. your darkest days since pearl

harboro 10 years ago in washington and new york and we were with you. my predecessor, john howard, was quite literally with you, and he came to this capitol when you met on september 12 to show you that australians will be with you again. and after 50 years under a new prime minister and a new president, the treaty was invoked. within australia's democracy, john howard and i had our differences, but he was and is an australian patery ott, a -- patery ott, a man that was moved during that terrible september. he was and is a friend of america. when john hord addressed you

here in 2002, we were already with you in afghanistan and we are with you there still. i want you to know what i have told australiaa's -- australia's parliament, what i told general petraeus, what iold president obama in the oval office this week, australia will stand firm with our ally, the united states. friends understand this, that we will stand firm with you, but perhaps more importantly our enemies understand this, too. we must be very realistic abouting afghanistan's future, australia firmly supports the international strategy led by

president obama and adopted in lisbon last year. australia is doing our part across the whole of afghanistan. the government of ahanistan must play its part, too. we know transition will take some years. we must not transition out only to transition back in. we must not. from my discussions with your country's leaders in washington, my meetings with generals in afghanistan, and my time with our troops this is my conclusion, i believe we have the right strategy in place, a resoluon, courageous commander in general petraeus, and the resources needed to deliver the strategy. i am cautiously encouraged by what i have seen. for a moment i want you to see afghanistan through the eyes of

corporal ben roberts smith. ben is australia yeas most recent victoria cross winner, our equivalent of your medal of honor. then is a veteran of five tours of afghanistan, and first went there in 2006. when we met recently, his words to me were compelling. he said, it's not the same country i wept to five years o. we are making a difference. friends, there are hard days ahead. i flew tyour country the day after attending the funeral of a young australian who served in afghanistan. mie lashingah, was from my

home state of south australia. from a small community with the most perfectly australia yain name, kangaroo island -- australian name,kangaroo island . his ambition was to serve his contry. he was a long way from home when he made the ultimate sacrifice. we will remember. i know very many young americans who serve their country and lost their lives in afghanistan, too. as a friend we share your grief. as an ally share your rolve . afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for terrorism. just as our security alliance is

one for war and peace, our economic partnership is one for hardship and prosperity. in hard days we work together. our societies share a deep understanding of the importance of work. we believe life is given purpose and direction by work. without work there is corrosive aimlessness. with the loss of work comes the loss of dignity. that's why each of our countries the great goal of all we do in the economy is the same, that great goal is to ensure that everyone who can work does work. in turn, this is why each of our countries talk early -- took early and strong action in the face of the greatest threat to the world's economy since the grt depression. and we did not just act locally or individually, we worked hard together when we -- we worked

together when hardship came. it was difficult but we did it together. new glob realities and the emerging economic weight of countries like china, india, and brazil meant the vital forums, the global response with the g-20 nation. my predecessor, kevin rudd, worked hard to ensure this was so. the world needed a global response to the economic crisis, and global leadership was vital. together the g-20 coordinated $5 trillion in fiscal stimulus for the global economy. while there has been very real pain, the global response averted true economic disaster. economic stimulus has been crucial. to limit the worst effects of the downturn, economic reform is crucial now to deliver the best

hope for a strong recovery. like you, i'm a leader in a democracy, i know reform is never easy. but i know reform is right. the general economic outlook remains fragile and uncertain. global economic balance and we must address them or risk future instability. your leadership in the g-20 is still needed to ensure we make the reforms which will keep t global economy on the path to strong,ustained, and balanced growth. and that is the path to growth in americas well. we worked hard with you during the global economic crisis to resist protectionist pressures. our decades working together to prome free trade in the world. i know many of you worked hard

to achieve the australia-u.s. free trade agreement. can i say each of you today, thank you. our free trade agreement shows the benefits of free-throw and we aim for even larger benefits from the transpacific partnership which is a great economic opportunity for our two countries and seven of our regional partners. and we have other opportunities to promote trade and jobs as well. i'm looking forward to your country hosting the meeting later this year. we will work closely together there. australia is also working for an ambition and balanced conclusion ofhe w.t.o. doha round as soon as possible. and we look forward to your

congress passing a 2012 farm bill that advances free-throw rather than distorting it and through free-throw creates jobs. we know the equation is simple, trade equals jobs. a very simple equation. our society shares a deep understanding of the importance of work, and our societies share a deep commitment to the value of education. we understand education's transformative power. we know education is the future forvery child who learns. we also know education is the future for our economy. our future growth relies on competitiveness and innovaon. skills and productivity. and these in turn rely on the education of our people. australia and america are partners in a globalized world

where open societies flourish and competitive economies thrive. that's why i went to a school until wakefield, virginia, with president obama this week. the president and i not only saw children learning, we saw the future of your people and the future of your prosperity as well. australians are deeply grateful to your greatest generation for their mighty deeds. this week i have seen a nw generation of americans. i genuinely believe they can be greater still. achieving prosperity while sharing its befits requires farsighted educational reform. in the same way achieving growth

while caring for our climate requires farsiged economic reform. breaking the link between economic growth and emissionings growth is a difficult challenge for our economies, and we conal -- can only achiee it by working together. our cooperation in key international forum and research and development is making an important ctribution. we must work together to acheeve an his tork transition -- historic transition to high technology, high skills, clean energy economy. shared values are the basis of our securi alliance, and shared values are the basis of our economic partnership as well. through hard work and education, we can deliver a strong economy

and opportunity for all. americans are great optimists, and australians will always have a go. so conceived in the pacific war and born in the cold war, adapted to the space age, and invoked in the face of terror our indispensable alliance is a friendship for the future. it is this year the 60th anniversary of the signing of our treaty. it is because of that have the opportunity to speak to you today. for that i'm grateful. as i said to president obama, it is an alliance 60 years young with so much future to share. and this is a timely opportunity not so much for reflection on the past as a discussion of our future. the bipolar world in which our alliance was signed has long since disappeared.

i'm not sad about its passing. hundreds of millions of people have a better life today. democracy and human dignity has spread wide in the world in the last 20 years. we have seen this from eastern europe to east asia in recent years, and we have seen the hope of it in the middle east right now. we understand that nothing is certain. there is still much for the people of the middle east to do. and the governments of the world will be there to help them do it. yet i believe what we are seeing is unchanging realities of human nature, finding a new expression in a new light. for australia's part, we will do what we can and work with you to support orderly transitions to democracy. to foster human rights and religious freedom within the countries of the middle east.

and to secure lasting peace between them. a peace where no nation threaten another. which is why we join you in condemning iran nuclear program. and we also strive for peace, a peace where israel is secure and where palestinians have a state of their own, which is why we join you in calling on all parties to negotiate in good faith. our lives were signed 60 years ago in the cold war and released in a new world today. and the changes in the middle east, i believe it is in the

asia pacific where the global order is changing the most. we admire india's example as a true democracy. we never forget indonesia's transition to create the world's third largest democracy in the world's largest islamic country. and we applaud china's lifting some 500 million people out of poverty. the global, strategic, and economic weight is shifting to this region. the rise of the asia pacific will define our times. like you, our relationship with china is important and conflict. we encourage china to engage. and we ask where difference does lie. my guiding principles is that prosperity can be shared. we can create wealth together.

the global economy is not a zero sum game. prosperity there is no rein for chinese prosperity to detract anywhere in the world. america has always understood this principle of the economy that everyone can benefit when everyone competes. and for 60 years your leadership in the asia pacific has showed this. your commitment to free trade and investment fuels the growth. your presence, a net work of allies ensures the stability. you were indispensible in the cold war and you are indispensible in the new world

too. so your growing engagement with key countries in the region like japan, india, south korea and indonesia, is enormously welcomed. we will work closely with you to strengthen the fabric of these relationships and underpin regional stability. strengthening regional institutions so that the countries that the asia-pacific increasingly manage the friction of a growing and changing asia-pacific. that's why your nation's decision to join the east asia summit is such good news. the summit brings the leaders of the region's major powers together and has a mandate to deal with the whole range of economic, political and security issues our countries face. our relationship is evolving to meet these new challenges. from defense and intelligence to diplomacy and trade. australia and the south with

south korea and japan to the north form real asian-pacific relationships with the united states. regional stability. an alliance which was stro in the cold war, an allianc which is strong in the new world. in both of our countries, true friends stick together. our nations do this and our people do this asell. nothing better tells this truth than the story of two firefighters. many australians and americans work together in the late 1990's to be ready to protect the 2000 sidney olympics from poible terrorist attacks. one spent two months in new york training and working, including a long time with new york's fire department rescue one. they worked hard together and became more than colleagues.

they became meats. so -- they became mates. so when it was time to go home, the australian commander gave rescue one chief his australian army hat and the chief presented the australian with a battd scard fire helmet. december, 1998, and signed by members of the rescue one crew, including kevin. three years later, kevin was one of the hundreds of new york firefighters kied when the towers came down. kevin led his people. his remains were never found but his helmet was in australia. an aussie firefighter ro frey found kevin's sons. jane is one of nework's bravest. a firefighter, like his father before him. patrick is wearing his

country's uniform in afghanistan. rob came to america to give james the helmet his father signed, a precious possession, a last link to a father lost. and i give you their story of precious position too. these two men are here today, rob, james.

rob, james, we are so proud of what you represent. your story about the friendship between australia and the united states. together in the hardest of times, friends for the future. when our alliance was signed 60 years ago, the challenges of the space age was still to come. the challenges of terrorism was still to come. for 60 years, leaders from austraa and the united states have looked inside themselves and found the courage, the courage to face those hallenges. and after 60 years, wdo the same today, to protect our people, to share our prosperity, to safeguard our

future. for ours is a friendship for the future. it has been from its founding and it remains so today. you have a friend in australia, and you have an ally, and we know what that means. in both our countries, true friends stick together. in both our countries, real mates talk straight. so as friend, i urge you only this -- be worthy to your own best traditions. be bold. in 1942, john curtin, my predecessor, my country's great wartime leader, looked to america. i still do. this year you marked the centennial of president reagan's birth. he remains america's symbol of

great optimism. the only greatest symbol of american optimism is america itself. the eyes of the world are still upon you. your city on a hill cannot be hidden. your brave and free people have made you the masters of recovery and reinvention. as i stand before you in this, this cradle of democracy, i see a nation that changed the world, a nation that has known remarkable days. i firmly believe you are the same people who amazed me when i was a small girl by landing on the moon. on that great day i believed

americans could do anything. i believe that still, you can do anything. thanyou.

the speaker: the purpose of the joint meeting having been completed, the chair declares the joint meeting of the two houses now dissolved. the house will continue in recess subject to the call of the chair. >> the house returns on monday people are mourning our speeches. on his agenda, another temporary to thousand 11 spending bill. this one will extend government spending for a few more weeks. the current bill expires march 18. also two measures to end foreclosure assistance programs. and did this kucinich -- dennis kucinich plans to propose a war

powers resolution that allowed president obama to withdraw forces from afghanistan by the end of the year. at 4:30, senators take up the nomination -- then the first votes of the week on the nomination and a vote to move forward with the reauthorization of small business administration permits. live coverage when members return, on c-span2. >> on television, on radio, and online. created by cable, it is washington, your way. >> earlier this week, rhode island gov. lincoln chafee gave his first budget address since being elected last november. some of the topics included an increase in state worker pension

contributions and a cut in medicare benefits. he spoke for about half an hour. rex thank you. madam speaker, members of the judiciary, mayors, my fellow rhode islanders. it is a privilege to speak to you from this chamber which has defined our experiment cents rhode island was founded. i feel honored by the trust you have placed in me, and i tell the people of our state that they can and can count on their government to make wise financial decisions, and built a

21st century red island that makes us proud. in so many ways, rhode island has achieved greatness. earlier in the century, we were a bastion of democracy in the defense of rights and liberties. but the industrial revolution, we became a beehive of industrial activity, supplying american people with the textiles and materials that were essential for the winning of wars and the winning of a better way of life for many americans. in the 20th century, we did more than our share to help america secure liberty abroad and build prosperity at home. in the 21st century, it has been more difficult. we have not adapted to new ideas and new markets. we face high unemployment and huge budget deficits. but the markets -- our democracy

has been lively, but not always functional. we need a new path to greatness. we have to retool our place in the world. that will not be easy, but none of us in this room were sent here to do a job we thought was it easy. this is a challenge that will need all our talents and energy. i am reminded by our potential for prosperity simply by walking into this building. our state house was built at an enormous cost in 1904. we imported 17,000 cubic feet of georgia white marble and 1,300 tons of steel beams. the architects and inspiration from the best features of the u.s. capitol and the great dome structures of london, paris, and rum. it was designed to be a unique

rhode island statement. our state government was supposed to set high standards. they did not want a building that would last just a few years, and they gave us a structure that stood the test of time. we also need to think ahead for the benefit of our children and their children. how would it be a future historians said the bus, -- said of us, "they responded to the issues of their day, but failed to prepare for the future"? that cannot happen. i ask you to think about leadership and the hard decisions before us. i believe a better future starts today. i directly confronting our challenges, we may take the first steps on a better path to prosperity.

our first step -- to pass a budget that closes the deficit, investing in our schools, and fixes structural problems. we've relied on federal funding for six years to close our budget gaps instead of making choices about what services are government should provide and how much we can afford. stimulus money has ended, and we face a deficit of $295 million for fiscal year 2012. we can no longer delay difficult decisions. my budget in to close the deficit through a combination of revenue enhancements and program cuts, ensuring we do not harm the state programs necessary for growth. one of the key areas must examine is the sales tax. as 7%, at our sales tax is the highest in new england. but because we exempt food, clothing, and other items, we

have one of the narrowest tax -- tax categories in the country. today, i propose a two-tier system. we must take this vital step to address our structural deficit. as mentioned in the past, we need to take a close look at items currently exempt from the sales tax. during the campaign, i recommended using exempt items at 1%, and in committed to stay with that plan to reduce our deficit. i also believe the government should listen to its citizens, and there are concerns that the 1% sales tax may cause a hardship on our most vulnerable populations and maintain current exemptions for food, gasoline, prescription drugs, and medical devices. all would remain exempt from the sales tax.

there is another simple and fair way to increase revenue. rhode island for all citizens -- businesses are facing unfair competition from online sales which are normally exempt from sales tax. we have projected loss of $70 million to online revenue. i believe the internet sales to consumers with access to more options -- they should not enjoy an advantage by being exempt from sales tax. this is a federal issue, and i am calling on congress to pass the act that would allow businesses to collect tax on internet purchases. this would level the playing field between out-of-state retailers and rhode island businesses. in washington, d.c. at the national governors' association conference, i raised the issue with house speaker john boehner

and harry reid. i will maintain the importance of the main street fairness act for rhode island businesses. it would also provide us enough revenue to repeal the 1% sales tax. [applause] looking ahead, we must also organize our sales tax to adapt to a changing economy. when the sales tax was enacted in 1947, 60% of u.s. personal household consumption was of goods while 40% was on services. since then, the united states has moved to a more service- based economy. the average household now spends 30% on goods and 70% on services, but the tax average has not changed. i propose expanding sales tax to include certain services such as

dry cleaning, beauty salons, and recreational activities. if we apply our sales tax to a broader base, we can lower a to a more competitive rate. i propose reducing the sales tax rate to 6%, returning it to the level -- [applause] this returns as to the level we had in 1990, before the credit union crisis. the new 6% rate would be lower than massachusetts and the proposed rate for connecticut, encouraging more people to shop in our state. it would also send a signal to rhode island, at that road island is committed to attract new businesses. -- rhode island is committed to attract new businesses. we have to make our state saul

that if we are to rebuild. the measures we take today will be bearable if they lead clearly and unmistakably to a better future for our children. to avoid solving the problem is not only a failure to discharge our responsibility, but in the long haul, it is more expensive. by confronting these problems immediately, we will show the world we are serious about returning road island to greatness -- rhode island to greatness. if we want to balance the budget in the short and long term, we must make difficult decisions to cut government spending. spending on health and human services programs are not only the largest portion of the state budget, but the fastest growing. these programs are set to grow by $96 million between 2008 and

2012, driven by rising health- care costs. and in comparison, spending and other state government agencies provide only $12 million over the same years. and municipal aid was cut by $195 million over the same period of time. it is time to consider what services are government should provide and how much we are willing to pay for them. we will conduct a top to bottom review of all of the departments and identify areas for savings. we will restructure existing contracts. we can cut spending by fiscal year 2012, with an even larger amount projected for fy 2015.

many reforms are common sense, such as providing -- such as paging providers comparable rates for services. this will allow us to evaluate what we are getting for our tax dollars. a bowl of the spending cuts was to minimize the impact -- goal of these spending cuts was to minimize the impact, and i encourage the general assembly to discuss and debate these proposals thoroughly. at the end of the day, i urge you to recognize we cannot simply continue to fund our current level of services. i also propose 25 millions -- $25 million in cuts to other departments, as the first step of and operations review in management. state government administers many important programs, but we have no systematic way of knowing how well we are doing. i am working with my department directors and their employees to

review operations there out our government. we must identify the most important responsibilities of government, and sure we do them well, and decide how to measure their effectiveness. we will make our department more accountable and efficient, and then determine which programs are worthy of attention and which ones should be modified or eliminated. the combination of revenue enhancement and cuts will help the current deficit, but that is not enough. our budget requires development for long-term growth. one area for particular attention is our state's business climate. too long, we've been targeted to individual companies instead of creating an environment that fosters broad economic growth. one example -- a tax credit that lowers the corporate tax rate

for companies that create jobs. the program is well intended. in reality, very few companies can navigate the complex reporting requirements and its effectiveness is difficult to determine. the corporate tax cut also creates an unfair advantage for multi-state companies with operations in rhode island. rhode island with operations based here enjoy no such advantage. we can treat all of our businesses fairly. we need an environment where all businesses are encouraged to grow and prosper. tonight, i propose we phase out the jobs development tax credit and create a system of reporting for government tax accreditation. this will allow us to lower the

corporate minimum tax from $500 to two under $50 for more than 30,000 small businesses -- $250 for more than 30,000 small businesses. [applause] that is good. we also will reduce our corporate tax rate over three years from 9%, one of the highest in the nation, to 7.5%, putting is on par with connecticut and lower than massachusetts. [applause] this lower corporate tax rate come up with -- will benefit existing businesses who planned to expand operations, as well as make our state more attractive to companies looking to relocate here. we also have to develop a well

educated and skilled work force. last year, we passed the start education. that will ensure that we have a stable and predictable source of revenue. [applause] even in these difficult times, my budget honors that payment, while providing the additional funds necessary to support the school funding formula. [applause] i am committed to ensuring a first-class public education system for our students so they can graduate with the skills needed to succeed in life.

the best area we can make our investments. we also must make lasting investments in higher education systems. we have three fine public institutions of learning -- the university of rhode island, rhode island college, and the community college of rhode island. unfortunately, the state contribution to higher education has plummeted in recent years. my budget reverses that trend by proposing an additional $10 million for our higher education system. even in these tough times, we must demonstrate our commitment to higher education and the young people of this date. there is no more important rung

on the ladder to success. maintaining transportation is another vital investment in our state for all future. our method of paying for transportation budget is broken. right now, the department of transportation uses proceeds from the gas tax to fund part of the state's share of the federal highway project. we borrow the rest. the number of potholes and closed bridges in our state -- the options are not easy. rhode island as one of the highest dast -- gas tax rates in the country, and we cannot raise it higher. in 200011, rhode island spent $43 million of gas service on transportation. that is money we could have used

to rebuild bridges and fix our roads. i propose a plan to develop revenue from license -- drivers licenses and registration fees for infrastructure funds. we can diversify our transportation funding sources, avoid increases in the gas tax, and reduce waste full interest payments. -- wasteful interest payments. $43 million this year alone in interest payments. another item for action is our pension system. our unfunded liability as $5 billion and projected to be even larger. the current system is unsustainable and a burden on the taxpayers. in fiscal year 2012, they are contributing $238 million to

state employee and teacher pensions, and that number will increase to $422 million by fiscal year 2016. that is a 77% increase over four years. the state has made progress to address the problem, but we need a comprehensive plan. under the terms of agreement made by the previous administration, state employees to receive a 3% cost-of-living adjustment in january, and they are scheduled to receive another 3% in july, july 1. i propose allstate employees can -- all state employees contribute their state pension in july and i propose -- all of these groups benefit from strong pension system. this proposal will provide $40 million of additional

contributions this year. in light of the shared sacrifices i am asking all rhode islanders to make, i believe this is reasonable and warranted. this will last until we establish and a comprehensive pension reform plan, at which time we can adjust them as necessary. expect more information in coming months. using that information i will work with the general assembly and all interested parties to establish a long-term solution. that solution should outline the interests of rhode island taxpayers and their public employees. finally, we must not ignore the challenges facing local government. like our state, many cities and towns face deficits and unfunded pension plans. unfortunately, we have contributed to the problem.

we have cut state aid to cities and towns by $195 million over the last four years in an effort to balance our own budget. if we do not want additional cities and towns to face the problems confronting providence and central falls, we must take action. my budget includes an additional $5 million of aid for distressed communities with the greatest need. i also propose a new local aid initiative and the municipal accountability stability and transparency program. the m.a.s.t. program will provide money to communities that establish comprehensive funding practices. those that do not, they will forfeit a portion of their state aid. under this program, the state will be more closely able to work with cities and towns to

understand the challenges at an early age. the state should encourage municipalities to get their finances in order, and we must set an example by demonstrating our own commitment to fiscal responsibility. i want to say a word about rhode islanders. bob will have to a charge a sales tax that will cut into his tips, but he is willing to bear his part of the burden if we live up to our responsibilities in this chamber, if we spend taxpayer funds with discipline so our economy recovers and these sacrifices will have met their purpose. my goal for the long term is to reduce taxes to be more competitive, and i also want to ask all of you to pledge with me we will commit to lower taxes

as the economy recovers. as those in this chamber know, the budget in committing tonight is based on revenue projections from last november. we have some indication that the actual revenues for fiscal year 2012 may be higher than the november estimates. if those trends hold, i strongly encourage this chamber to use that additional money to lower taxes instead of adding new spending. ideally -- [applause] we want to continue to get more competitive, and ideally, we could lower our sales tax to 5.75% which would be a signal to

the nation that rhode island is serious about reducing its tax burden. you can do it. let's hope the numbers are good and we can get the 5.75%. it would be a great signal. you love listened -- you have listened to issues such as unfunded liabilities, structural deficits, corporate minimum tax. let me be clear. all of our challenges are made easier by a growing economy. if we demonstrate fiscal discipline, our economy will prosper. i have spent my entire career in public service. my record as mayor and councilman are a testament to that. we have lost our discipline as a nation. the many challenges facing our state are intimidating, but not

insurmountable. this budget proposal does not solve all of our woes in a single year. it represents the first step on a bold new path to prosperity. long-term vision is the kind of leadership we need at this turning point in rhode island history. the 21st century can be another great century for rhode island. we must think anew. i am confident we will work together to restore the greatness that still radiates from this state house. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

>> in his weekly radio and internet address, president obama recognized women's history month, talking about the need for equality and opportunity for women. he also urges passage of legislation that addresses disparities between men and women in the workplace. then the senate addressed with the ranking energy committee member lisa murkowski. she addresses the need for energy alternatives to reduce demand >> march is women's history month, a time not only to celebrate the progress we have made, but the women who made that progress possible. one woman who comes to mind is eleanor roosevelt. in 1961, the former first lady

was unhappy about the lack of women in government. she marched up to president kennedy and handed him a three- page list of women who were qualified to serve in his administration. this led the president to select your as a commission to look at the state of women in america, the unfairness that routinely faced in their lives. the report a released spurred action across the country. it helped galvanize a movement led by women that would help make our society a more equal place. in almost 50 years since the roosevelt commission published its findings, there have been few more efforts by the government and the decades that followed. that is what last week week issued a new comprehensive report on the status of women in the spirit of the one that was released half a century ago. women ca u